Government Subsidies to the Global Financial System

Government Subsidies to the Global Financial System

The primary goal of the present study is to understand the character and to estimate the total value of subsidies, both direct and implicit, from governments to the private sector institutions that make up the global financial system.
A secondary objective of this analysis is to deepen the understanding of the extent to which the existing suite of subsidies to the private financial sector tends to advance or obstruct the global effort to achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Although the full impact of many of the policies that create subsidies to the global private financial sector cannot be estimated today with a high degree of confidence, the study offers a conservative estimate to promote a broader and more detailed discussion of these issues and to stimulate further investigations at the national level by others.

A preliminary agenda for action in this area could consider the following research priorities: 1) Expand the scope of analysis, as a better understanding of subsidies to the demand-side of finance is needed, and 2) Expand the geographic range of coverage, as the analysis has highlighted significant gaps in the geographic coverage of relevant data on subsidies to different asset classes in the global financial system.